View Full Version : [Article] A View From The Top - Grand Prix Interviews
Bardo
03-25-2009, 12:30 AM
By Doug Linn (Hi-Val)
Article (http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/17256_Legacys_Allure_A_View_From_The_Top_Grand_Prix_Interviews.html).
Top-shelf stuff, wherein Doug interviews three folks from the T8 of Grand Prix: Chicago (Brain Six, Brassman and Gabriel Nassif).
Discuss.
Yep, good stuff. Enjoyed all 3 of the interviews. Nassif only came off about half as preening as I thought he would.
Forbiddian
03-25-2009, 12:56 AM
Kickass article.
Nassif was pretty laconic, but congratulations to him and the players in the T8.
mujadaddy
03-25-2009, 01:09 AM
*Very good article* -- In depth, but still short.
There was a little discussion in the B&R thread about which would be the better candidate for banning, CB or SDT. Probasco's take:
It feels stupid saying Counterbalance here, but I really think that right now the entire format is built around it. Just about every card in my deck is in there to find Counterbalance, beat Counterbalance, or beat the few cards that beat it. ...which is also my view, not that I'm asking for CB to be banned, just that CB is the "bigger" card than SDT, format-impact-wise.
FoolofaTook
03-25-2009, 01:20 AM
I thought it was interesting that Nassif considered the StP's to be redundant and not all that valuable after he had played through the GP. That's a very funny position for the winner of a competition supposedly dominated by Tarmogoyf to take.
It makes a certain amount of sense with Vedalken Shackles and Sower of Temptation in his build but it is counter-intuitive to think that StP wasn't all that valuable from his perspective despite the fact that he faced Goyfs repeatedly during the competition. Given that white was basically in the deck for StP and a couple of easily replaceable sideboard cards that also argues that the deck could be much better if it cut down to 3 colors.
I thought it was interesting that Nassif considered the StP's to be redundant and not all that valuable after he had played through the GP. That's a very funny position for the winner of a competition supposedly dominated by Tarmogoyf to take.
Probasco, not Nassif.
Aggro_zombies
03-25-2009, 02:06 AM
In round 4, I was playing against a dredge player. Game 1, he was going off, as dredge normally does, and I was silently kicking myself for skimping on dredge sideboard cards. He seemed pretty inexperienced, and very excited to be dredging so much, and I played along with him. At one point I even said "wow, you can dredge your whole deck this turn!" and he enthusiastically agreed. When he did dredge his last card, he went to Dread Return a Flame-Kin Zealot and put 12 Bridge from Below triggers on the stack, which I responded to by Lightning Bolting my Wild Nacatl. He attacked me for 5 and lost in his next draw step.
HA HA HA, OH WOW.
Also, great article. It's too bad we can't really have these more often without it becoming repetitive, since I like this type of thing.
Anusien
03-25-2009, 02:08 AM
They both got to the same place, and one of them didn't have StP. Says a lot about the necessity of StP in the metagame.
Skeggi
03-25-2009, 04:13 AM
Awesome article. Nicely done!
I never thought StP wouldn't be an auto-include when playing white... except for Stax ofcourse.
jeanbathez
03-25-2009, 05:12 AM
Very well written article !!!
I enjoyed reading it.
Intersting was the different points of view about swords to plowshares and also the interviews from the players about their decks, very very interesting were the thoughts from Brassman about his deck and his tuning of this deck.
Muradin
03-25-2009, 11:13 AM
Good article, interesting interviews.
Considering the Stop vs Control Magic discussion I think everyone will agree that stealing guys is better than killing guys. The downside of this is, that stealing guys costs in general more mana than killing guys, which turned out to be an advantage considering the average CB manacurve of most decks in this event.
I would also argue that the ability to take out a creature at instant speed is a pretty big deal. Brassman's thought on STP are interesting. But when I search for his reasoning, I don't find myself agreeing.
BTW, top notch, Bardo Hi-Val. The questions are precisely the sorts of things I wanted to read about. And the brevity of it all fits well into my attention span.
I think it's interesting that all three of them could have run Plow, but only one did. On the other hand, all three of them ran Tarmogoyf.
Nightmare
03-25-2009, 01:20 PM
I think it's interesting that all three of them could have run Plow, but only one did. On the other hand, all three of them ran Tarmogoyf.
Let it go.
Nightmare
03-25-2009, 01:25 PM
No.
Ok, let's try it this way.
Let it go.
Okay, fine... for now.
I think it was a perfectly valid and interesting observation, though.
hi-val
03-25-2009, 03:01 PM
Nassif posted a full report in Premium today, which fills in a few of the holes in our interview. I was so happy to get great responses from the guys and they answered insightfully in a way that made me want to stretch it into big month-long Q n' A session articles!
Glad y'all liked it : )
Peter_Rotten
03-25-2009, 03:32 PM
Easily one of the best SCG legacy articles in a long time. (But take it for what it's worth - I LOVE interview articles like those; I was an easy sell!).
mercenarybdu
03-25-2009, 04:50 PM
All of it was good, excep, Nassif could've answered everything better, if he had put more effort into the format....
kabal
03-25-2009, 04:56 PM
All of it was good, excep, Nassif could've answered everything better, if he had put more effort into the format....
Read the premium report that hi-val mentioned, it gives a lot more insight.
from Cairo
03-25-2009, 05:06 PM
Easily one of the best SCG legacy articles in a long time. (But take it for what it's worth - I LOVE interview articles like those; I was an easy sell!).
Agreed, I much prefer this type of thing to whats usually on Starcity.
mercenarybdu
03-25-2009, 08:06 PM
Read the premium report that hi-val mentioned, it gives a lot more insight.
I don't have a subscription. So I'll have to wait 3-4months prior to it being published.
All of it was good, excep, Nassif could've answered everything better, if he had put more effort into the format....
You are officially the Debby Downer of these forums. Every time Wizards or Pros do something well for this format it just isn't enough for you. Please give it up.
jazzykat
03-25-2009, 08:40 PM
This article != Suck
I like these type of articles, no bullshit advice straight from winners.
mercenarybdu
03-25-2009, 10:05 PM
You are officially the Debby Downer of these forums. Every time Wizards or Pros do something well for this format it just isn't enough for you. Please give it up.
Note, that i don't do it on a daily basis.
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